Charlie's Disney Cars 4th Birthday Party

To celebrate his birthday this year, Charlie had a little friends party at our house. It was just me and Trevor against nine 3- and 4-year-olds. At first I wondered if I was crazy for attempting such a feat, but it turned out really fun! Everyone played and listened well and things never got out of hand.

Additionally, I purchased all of the decor and also bought a store made cake this year, and it was WONDERFUL. Like, zero stress. Except for the moment an hour before the party when Trevor went to pick up the cake and they had--ahem--supposedly lost the order slip and never made his cake. Say WHAT? ... Luckily we ended up getting a free cake, but unluckily it didn't look exactly like the one I ordered (read: pick up a pre-made cake and put Cars toys on top and write on it). Oh well, the only thing that really matters is that Charlie didn't know the difference and he LOVED the cake. He was so excited to dig into it, and he didn't leave its side until the party started. Ha!

Here's a couple pictures of the decor. When I asked Charlie what kind of birthday party he wanted, the first thing he always said was "balloons and cake!" so I made sure those things were present and accounted for. :)

When all the tiny sized party guests had arrived, I let them play with the toys and watch Cars 2 for a few minutes. Then, we played Pin the Teeth on Mater. I let Charlie (being the birthday boy and all) go first. I put the paper blindfold/mask on him and told him to stick his teeth on the poster somewhere. He kept turning his head back and forth and up and down and before I realized what he was doing, he had put his sticker almost perfectly where it was supposed to go. That's when I realized he was looking through the cracks around the mask! Cheater!! Haha... I let it slide since anything goes on your birthday, but I told the rest of the kids that they couldn't peek and I tried to prevent them from seeing. It was such a fun game and some of the kids thought it was super silly. {$6 at Partyland. Can't beat that!}

Next, we trekked downstairs to hit the birthday cake shaped piñata (I didn't have enough time to order a Cars one... oops!) filled with candy and trinkets. Each of the kids took a turn. They got two hits per turn. We soon realized that their weak little arms weren't going to do much damage. Haha! Some kids did hit harder than others, and his little friend Austin (who also happens to be a 3rd child) hit so hard that he knocked it off the string and we couldn't tie it back up. At this point, we let him try to beat it on the ground (see picture below... so funny!) and when that didn't work, Trevor resorted to ripping it open and throwing all the candy up in the air. It worked, and all the excited kids ran and started filling their loot bags. :)

Run run run and get all the treats!

Here's that amazing picture of Austin taking names with the piñata. And then a picture of my sweet Charlie and his birthday cake. He (finally) was a pro at blowing out his candles! Getting sung to and blowing out candles on a birthday cake is probably his favorite thing in the entire world. He was in birthday heaven.

Here's everybody enjoying their cake and ice cream (except Kellen, the little neighbor two houses down who just really wanted to play with toys the whole time... like, I couldn't even get him to eat cake... what!?!) Starting with Charlie and going clockwise we have Chloe, Austin, Alyson, Aunika, Cohen, Oliver, phantom Kellen, and Elena!

After cake (and a good round of "let's clean everybody's face off") we opened presents! Charlie was slightly more interested in his bag of candy and party favors than his gifts, so we had to help him focus a little bit.

Kids live for presents, do they not!?

And sometimes even Dads are impressed by the toys! ;)

Overall, it was an hour and a half of high-energy fun! Charlie had a blast, and I just can't believe that my oldest baby is 4! Sometimes it seems like it's flown by... other times it seems like it's taken forever to get here. Either way though, I just love this silly, crazy, sweet boy and all of his quirks (like collecting everything currently important to him in one container and lugging it around the house... see photo for details hahaha). And finally, here's the invite Charlie personally delivered to all of his friends. I let him run up and knock on each of their doors and hand it to them. <3

Love you, Birthday Boy!

Creepy Crawly Bug Themed Birthday Party

Charlie's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so he got to have his 3rd birthday party on his actual birthday! Hooray! Once we decided on the bug party theme, I got to work taking Charlie's 3-year-old photos, making the invites, and delivering them to friends and family. I also got to work making plans for the food and the cake! This year's cake was a 3-layer chocolate boxed cake with chocolate frosting between the layers, but then I covered it with a homemade semisweet chocolate ganache and oreo crumbs to look like dirt. We topped it with some awesome plastic bugs I found at my local dollar store. That cake was SO delicious. I need to use ganache more often!

Most of the people we invited were able to make it this year, and so for a few days before the party I started to panic that we wouldn't have enough room or food for everybody! Fortunately, with the help of my friend Chelsey (who is an AMAZING party-thrower!) we pulled together all of the cute bug food ideas I found on Pinterest.

Like these classic worms in dirt (crushed oreos, worms, and chocolate pudding mixed with cool whip and more oreos):

Babybel Cheese Beetles (partially unwrapped Babybel cheeses with a blackberry stuck on using a toothpick) and Ants on a Log (celery sticks filled with peanut butter--or, in my case, sunflower seed butter--and topped with raisins):

Caterpillar Grape Kabobs (grapes on a skewer with mini chocolate chip eyes stuck on with chocolate frosting and frosting antennae):

Chips and Bug Guts (aka chips and queso - velveeta cheese plus rotel):

Since I focused so much of my efforts on the food, I didn't put up much decor. We bought some bright-colored balloons, left up the bats hanging from my ceiling that were there for Halloween, and put all sorts of little bug crafts, toys, and decor on my dining room table. I'm pretty sure the kids had a blast and made all sorts of crafts (and a mess!) on my table! :)

After everyone enjoyed their food, it was cake time! Charlie's face totally lit up when we started singing to him and Trevor brought the cake over with candles all lit up!

I was so proud that he successfully blew out one of his three candles this year! And also proud that I caught the moment it happened on camera! :)

He worked at it a little longer, and then Trevor came over to help him finish blowing them out. He's still working on his blowing skills. He tends to blow with an "F" sound shaped mouth (upper teeth on lower lip) instead of an O-shaped mouth. Haha :) You can kind of see what I'm talking about in the picture above.

Soon after we all devoured the delicious chocolate on chocolate on chocolate cake (mmmm!), it was time to open presents. Charlie got so many awesome gifts from his thoughtful family members and friends! This big dump truck was from my friend Chelsey and her daughter Jade (far left in this pic). He also got some awesome books, tractors (even a remote control one!), a bucket of gadgets from Grandma, and lots of great things to play with!

Probably his favorite gifts from his entire birthday were this cool kid microscope that he got from his cousins and the plastic blocks that encase real dead bugs from his friend Aunika. They have these blocks at the local Curiosity Museum and Charlie loved them when we went with Aunika and her mom Brittnee, so that's how Brittnee got the awesome idea to get him some for his birthday. Such a cool gift! And totally up my little scientist's alley! :)

The party started to thin out and die down a bit and Trevor and his friends went to the basement to play a few games of ping pong. :) It was such a fun day, despite the fact that Charlie truly embodied the concept of "It's My Party and I'll Cry/Pout/Scream if I Want To!". He was such a little meanie to any kid who tried to take the bugs he was playing with at the kitchen table. He would scream at them and cry until he got it back. I was quite embarrassed, but later realized it probably would have been a good idea to mentally prep him for his birthday party before it happened. Now I know it's good to tell him that friends are coming over and they are going to have fun and he needs to share his toys BEFORE it's happening to him!

You can tell in this photo how he was pretty worn out (both physically and mentally haha) by the time the party was over. See his little pout/sassy face?

We sure loved having everyone there! It's always a lot of work to throw a party, but we have so much fun that I always think it's worth it by the time it's all over with. And mostly, I still LOVE having a house to throw parties in! Thank goodness for that!

Here's me with my sweet 3-year-old! Oh, if only I weren't on the verge of a blink, this picture would be perfect! Happy Birthday, my boy!

May Days

Here's a look at what we did during the month of May! We started off the month with our 6th wedding anniversary! We celebrated by going on a date to Temple Square in Salt Lake City where we ate dinner outside at Blue Lemon and then went to see the Joseph Smith movie. It was fun to get to spend time with my sweetheart, and we owe it all to Jill and Russ for babysitting Charlie that night!

May is all about blooming trees and blue skies. I really do love spring! I also started doing a little sprucing up in the nursery with this cute new crib sheet! I've been trying to find an appropriate place for chevron in my house, and I think I've found it!

Excitingly, almost 3 months after it was started, the fireplace was FINISHED! I took a while deciding on which stone I wanted, but I finally made a decision and I'm extremely happy with it! We are truly enjoying the look of our fireplace, and eventually the function of it when it starts to get cold again, haha!

I took this cute picture of my sweet 2 and 1/2 year old boy's profile, so I can always remember. Even though he is getting ready to be a big brother, he's still my sweet baby. :) Also, for Mother's Day, my boys treated me to a massage at Sage Leaf Spa at Thanksgiving Point. It was truly wonderful, as I was about 35 weeks pregnant and feeling sore, tired, heavy, and stiff. 

Happy Mother's Day to me! I had to take a picture with the sweet, crazy boy who made me a mom. And then here's the official 36 week pregnancy picture. Getting close!

Houses have been going up like crazy on the street behind my house. It's really fun to watch the progress out my back windows. I think at the time I took this picture, there were at least 11 under construction on that street, and a couple more in other areas of the neighborhood!

We watched our neighbor's little boy Kellen, who is Charlie's age, for a couple hours one day. They had so much fun playing together! They played cars and trains and pretended to talk on the phone and made a general mess of Charlie's room. It was fun to sit there and watch. :) And, here's about how I looked at the time... 37.5 weeks pregnant! Whew! Full term!

Near the middle of the month, Trevor started getting on one of his healthy-eating-and-exercising kicks. He's an all-in or all-out kind of guy, so when he wants to eat healthily, he really means it. I benefited from this health kick, too, because he started cooking a lot! One night he made me this delicious salmon dinner complete with spinach, tomato, and cucumber salad. It was delicious. I kept joking with him that I wanted to eat at "Cafe Trevor" every night! But I'm not really joking... he definitely can cook when he wants to!
We also spent a few days of May at the pool, because I figured out that I had a swimsuit that could stretch over my pregnant belly! It was a nice break from the monotonous waiting and waiting I was doing for our baby girl to come. Charlie rather enjoyed it as well. He progressed from not really liking the water and sitting on the first step to wanting to jump off the first step toward me in the water and kicking and swimming around the pool with my help. We're still working on blowing bubbles in the water, but at least he's not swallowing mouthfuls of pool water every time his mouth submerges below water. Haha.

I also took an opportunity toward the end of May to go out shopping for a couple hours. It was really tiring with how huge I was getting, but it was also fun because I knew that it would be hard to go shopping once the baby came. I found a couple new shirts for both Charlie and Trevor. No shopping for myself, though, because who wants to try on clothes when you're the size of a whale? Not me. 

Our friends Cole and Meghan Ballard have lived in Texas for the last 4 years and just recently moved back to Utah, so we had them over to see our house and to catch up! It was a lot of fun to see them and the boys thoroughly enjoyed playing ping pong on the table we got in February. 

I was also busy with meetings and activities for my new church calling during May. In late April, I got a call from a member of the Stake asking to meet with me. I was a little surprised because I couldn't think of why they'd want to meet other than to extend a calling... and that seemed odd since I was 8 weeks away from having a baby! But, I met with Brother Maxwell in our kitchen while the living room was being painted (we were all crammed around the table with all our stuff sitting on it, too, haha). He asked me if I would accept the calling of 2nd Counselor in the Stake Young Women's Presidency. I was still really surprised and definitely nervous, but when it comes to receiving church callings, I have faith that the calling came from the Lord, and that He knows I am capable of such a task, even at this time. Even though I was hesitant, I prayed and told the Lord that I was trusting Him, and that I would need His help and support to be successful at accomplishing this calling. So far, things have been busy, but great, and the other women in the presidency are very understanding of my limitations. 

Finally, here's a fun little comparison photo I did on Instagram. There's Trevor as a toddler and Charlie. It seems they look more alike than everyone seems to think! Charlie, of course, still has my eyes, but he definitely looks like his Daddy, too!